The midfielder was offered a year-long contract extension to stay at Reebok Stadium in 2010, but instead moved to St Mirren in Scotland in search of first team action.

“You always think ‘should I have stayed or was it right to go?’, but you sort of can’t, you’ve just got to look forward,” Mooy says.

“So I try not to think about it and I’m happy where I am now so it’s all good.

“If I had’ve stayed I probably would have been in the reserves again and I’d already been in the reserves for a while. I just really wanted to play in front of crowds and in the first team, it’s what made my decision.

“It’ll be strange (playing against them), I think there’s a few boys that I used to play with in my team.

“It was good there. Just to have the facilities and the coaching, to be around the first team squad - they were playing in the Europa League at the time and had a really good team - I got to go to the Premier League games, every home game, so I used to watch the top class players from close up and see what they do. You learn a lot.

“It was a great experience, I’d always wanted to do it since I was very young so once I got the opportunity I was only ever going to say yes even though it was very hard to be away from my family at a young age.”

Raised in Western Sydney, the call of home was too strong when the Wanderers of the A-League were born in 2012, but now Mooy is a Melbourne City man after making the switch this off-season.

Asked why he left the Wanderers, Mooy hesitates, then says: “I was just looking for something a little bit different.”

“The people at the club here, they really, really wanted me to come which makes me want to come more, so that was one of the main factors.

“I also might be playing a different position this year, more of an attacking midfielder than a No.6. We’ll see.

“Everybody wants to be somewhere where they really want you there, so that obviously makes you want to prove to them that they made the right decision.”

Regardless of whether the Manchester City takeover was a major factor in his move south, Mooy says it is a bonus that he now finds himself part of a club with such strong links to football’s elite.

He describes as “humbling” Melbourne City’s pre-season training stint at its brother club’s Carrington training facility and said it has only made him look forward to the upcoming A-League season even more.

“It’s been unbelievable, the hotel we’re staying at is beautiful and just training at Manchester City’s facility every day has been unreal,” he says.

“The pitches are perfect, the gym has got everything in it, it’s massive, so before training we always go in there and do our prehab and warm up in there. We’re basically, right now, living the life of a Manchester City player - Yaya Toure or someone like that - so it’s pretty cool.”